Staff

Madeline Vergari Neumann and her daughter, Gina Neumann, have been teaching voice and dance for many years in the Santa Clarita Valley. They have decided to join forces and open a performing arts studio. Coming up with the name of our new studio was easy. L’amoré means “the love” in Italian, and that is what we want to experience at our studio. (L’amoré is pronounced “La- more-ā”.)

Madeline Vergari Neumann

Owner/Director of Voice

Madeline was born and raised in Cambridge, Ohio, and she attended Ohio University. At age 14, she started her own band, playing drums and singing. Her all girl band played at many school functions, etc. She was a runner-up in the Miss Ohio pageant and won the talent competition. As a result, she landed her first professional job with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. She toured the country with them for three years, then moved to Los Angeles and joined the Ray Conniff Singers, and traveled to Europe, South America, and Japan. She then joined Ray Anthony and the Bookend Revue, opening the new MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Through the years, she has sung with the Johnny Mann Singers, the Ray Charles Singers, Harry James, Ray Anthony, Les Brown, Bob Crosby, and Frank Sinatra Jr. Madeline sang at the White House for President Nixon and the Inaugural for President Reagan. She has recorded on many albums and commercials, as well as cartoons for Hanna- Barbera. Her own CD, entitled “This Is My Lucky Day!”, with Roger Neumann’s Rather Large Band, on the SeaBreeze label, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Madeline also sang the main title theme for the feature film, “A Private Matter”, starring Sissy Spacek and Aiden Quinn, with music by James Newton Howard. This film is now out on video. She sang solos on the Tracy Ullman Show “Tracy Takes On” on HBO. She also started and now directs the Saint Kateri Children’s Choir, where they have recorded two CDs titled “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Walking By Faith”, where she is featured as a soloist. She and members of her choir can be heard on the Fox TV show called “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader”. She has sung at the Governor’s Ball of the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards. She sings many different styles from rock to jazz. Regularly you can hear her sing at Disneyland at the new Fantasy Faire Theater with a big band. She does many jazz festivals and concerts throughout the country. She resides in Santa Clarita, California with her husband, Roger Neumann (a musician, composer and arranger), and her daughter, Gina and son Rico.

Gina Neumann

Owner/Director of Dance

Gina was born in Santa Clarita, California, where she fell in love with dance at the age of three. She studied at numerous studios in southern California, and participated in studio, high school and college dance teams. She began instructing dance at an early age, and has been sharing her passion with students for the past twelve years. Gina received her BA in Communications, but could not let go of her love for dance, leading to the opening of L’amoré Dance and Performing Arts Studio. Having both parents as professional musicians has given Gina a natural ear for music, which has influenced her in her unique style of choreography. Having an open mind, and knowing that one is never finished learning, are traits she instills in her students. Gina continues her education and training in the field of dance in order to broaden her knowledge, which she shares with her students.

Amanda Beets

Instructor of Dance

Amanda was born in Santa Clarita and began dancing at the age of 5. She participated in both gymnastics and cheer as well, but dancing was her passion. She started dancing at a local studio, and quickly began competing and winning many awards with her team and as a soloist. She was a part of a local jr. high dance team where she was captain for two years. Amanda also became captain of the Saugus High School dance team during her senior year in 2004-2005 and took them to win several Nationals titles that year. She continued to dance in college and was a part of the Long Beach State University Dance Team. Amanda returned to Santa Clarita and taught at some of the local elementary schools and spread her love and knowledge of dance throughout the after-school programs. Amanda has her Associates degree and her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Liberal Studies.

Robson Tadeu Freire

Instructor of Dance

Robson Tadeu Freire is from Amazonas State, Brazil. The first time Mr. Freire stepped onstage he was a 10 year old actor. He began his dance career training and performing with local companies until he earned a scholarship in the traditional Brazilian dance company Ballet Stagium, in São Paulo. In 1998 he returned to his hometown Manaus and formed part of the first generation of Corpo de Dança do Amazonas (the resident company of Amazonas Opera House). He studied under names such as Ivo Karagueorguiev (National Ballet of Sophia/Bulgaria), Ronald E, Brown (Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre/NY) and other well known Brazilian teachers such as Yoko Okada, Ismael Guise and Ricardo Ordoñez (in memoriam). He also founded his own company Elenco Alternativo de Dança and has been awarded several important grants in the Brazilian cultural scene. Mr. Robson has experience in musical theatre, TV, movie and opera. He has taught throughout Southern California since he arrived in 2006 and currently performs with Ballet Collective LA, Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre, Lake Arrowhead Classical Company, Brockus Project Dance Company, Project 21,and La Danserie. "Everything is dance".

Katherine Wolanske Leist

Instructor of Dance

Katherine Wolanske Leist, originally from Worcester, MA, is a classically trained dancer with a BA in Dance from Hofstra University. Her career began in New York City and is now continuing in LA with credits in television, commercials, and industrials for Nike, Audi, Apple, WIPEOUT, 20/20, Lifetime Television Network, Disney, NuSkin, Rite Aid, Paul Mitchell and Lucille Roberts. She has performed at the world-renowned Madison Square Garden as a dancer for a season of the New York Titans Professional Indoor Lacrosse team. She can be seen dancing in the European artist Sofia Strati’s “This Can’t Be Love” music video. She has also recently performed in Dee Caspery’s The Nvitational, Capezio ACE Awards, Carnival Choreographer’s Ball, Interweave Dance Theater, Revelations Dance & Aerial Company, Dancescape, Art4Life and Dance Excellence.

Miss Kat is a sought out master teacher and choreographer. She is an Award Winning Dance Team Coach at Hart High School in Santa Clarita, CA and a faculty member of The Young Americans College of Performing Arts. She travels to teach and choreograph for various studios and companies across the country.

Michael Talamantez

Instructor of Dance

Michael Talamantez, more commonly known as Michael Mantez, took his first steps into the dance world at the age of 15. Mantez first began competing on several traveling competition teams and a year later, he booked his first job as a guest performer on the number one dance show in America, “So You Think You Can Dance.” From there, he progressed in his dance career booking several more appearances on T.V. shows, music videos, and short films. He has worked alongside Nigel Lythgoe, Dejan Tubic, Dave Scott, Chris Judd, Sonya Tayeh and Tiffany Burton-Rojas. Mantez, now a 20-year-old full-time college student, enjoyed a taste of what it’s like behind the video camera and is pursuing a career in Film and Business. “It’s nice to get away from my everyday crazy-hectic schedule and just escape into a world where I can teach dance classes and learn from those who share the same passion as me and just have a good time,” says Mantez.

Aliyah Haffner

Instructor of Dance

Aliyah has been dancing in the Santa Clarita Valley since she was three years old. She has trained in several different styles of dance including jazz, tap, ballet, pointe, hip hop, lyrical, and contemporary. She has been a part of many competition teams and was a member of the national award-winning Saugus Dance Team in high school. Throughout her years of competition, she won several awards for her solos and group dances. Aliyah is passionate about sharing her love of dance with children and young adults by creating and encouraging environment along with strong technique and performance skills. Her goal is to shape dancers into confident, skilled, hard-working individuals who truly enjoy and value the art of dance.

Emily Lin

Instructor of Dance

Emily Lin has trained in ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, and tumbling her entire life. As a contemporary/jazz dancer, Emily constantly stresses the importance of movement quality while maintaining a strong base of technique. During her high school career, Emily has been a part of her school’s dance team, a rigorous competition team, for four years. Beginning her sophomore year of high school, Emily traveled the country on convention with NRG Dance, assisting her teacher and mentor Mallauri Esquibel. Currently, she is signed with Bloc LA talent agency and has booked jobs for Hasbro and Disney. Honors and awards include West Coast Elite Dance national improv champion 2015, 1st place West Coast Elite Dance regional competition champion 2014 and 2016, and 3rd place USA dance nationals 2016. In addition to this, Emily was just named a Spotlight Music Center semifinalist in the non classical division. In the future, Emily sees herself continuing to pursue her professional dancing career. This next year, she plans to attend college, specifically majoring in dance. Of the schools she applied to, she has been accepted into UCI, UCLA, Chapman, USD, UCSD, Cal State Long Beach, Cal Poly-SLO, and has been waitlisted for the USC Glorya Kaufman program and NYU Tisch. Her biggest dream is to travel the world on tour with a professional artist and she hopes that one day this dream will become a reality.

Jasmin Johnson

Instructor of Dance

Jasmin Johnson took her first ballet class at the age of three and immediately fell in love with dance. She grew up in Marietta, GA training in ballet, jazz, contemporary and modern at the Georgia Dance Conservatory. She began intensely studying ballet at the age of 12 upon acceptance to the North Carolina School of the Arts. Over the years she has trained at the American Ballet Theatre, the Orlando Ballet and the Rock School of Dance Education and received scholarships to the Joffrey Ballet, BalletMet and the Orlando Ballet. At the age of 15, Jasmin left home to continue her training at the prestigious Nutmeg Conservatory of the Arts in Connecticut. There, she was fortunate enough to work with a number of incredible choreographers such as Elearnor D’Antuono, Victoria Mazzarelli, Moses Pendleton, Alexi Tchernichov, and Kirk Peterson. While attending Nutmeg, Jasmin was fortunate enough to perform for Pope Benedcit XVI at Yankee Stadium with the cutting edge contemporary company, Momix. Upon graduation Jasmin relocated down to Orlando, FL where she continued dancing and performing. Jasmin moved to Los Angeles in 2011 and since then has signed with the Movement Talent Agency to begin her career in commercial dance. She has been lucky enough to perform with a number of the leading choreographers in the industry such as Christopher Scott and was honored to work with him at the Teen Choice Awards dancing with the famed pop group Paramore! She can also be seen on the popular TV show Glee. Most recently she was in the new Samsung commercial “Smart Switch” choreographed by Michael Rooeny. Jasmin has found a passion in sharing her love of dance and is thrilled to continue that with her students at the L’amore Dance & Performing Arts School!

Sabrina Sweet

Instructor of Dance

Sabrina Sweet realized her love for dance at the age of 6 in the talent portion of pageants. Singing didn't work out very well for her, so she tried dancing. And let's just say she never stopped! She then decided to take dance classes in Santa Clarita Valley where she grew up. Sabrina started with tap and jazz and then began her training in contemporary, ballet, pointe, hip hop, heels, and more as time went by. Once Sabrina went to high school, she joined Hart Dance Team for 3 years then decided to take her dance to the next level during senior year by taking as many conventions, classes in LA, and competitions as she could. After Sabrina graduated high school, she was offered an amazing contract dancing for Princess Cruises for 4 years traveling the world and gaining an unforgettable experience. After completing her last contract over seas, Sabrina decided to stay in London for a month and then to New York for 10 days to train, teach, and perform with some amazing and talented choreographers and dancers from all over the world. Sabrina now enjoys performing for insomniac events, teaching barre workout and Zumba classes, and teaching the amazing and sassy girls of Lamore in her heels and jazz funk class!

Jenna Blazi

Instructor of Dance

Hi, my name is Jenna Blazi and I am currently living in Santa Clarita. I have been teaching dance for over 6 years and dancing for over twelve. I like all styles of dance, but love contemporary and jazz. Young kids are my passion and watching them get excited about learning to dance and building their confidence is my goal. I love Corgis, Meghan Trainor and Taylor Swift. I am so happy to be teaching at L’amoré and hope to see some of you in my classes.

Aubrey Haffner

Instructor of Dance

Aubrey Haffner has been dancing in the Santa Clarita valley since she was four years old. She has trained with Gina and L'amoré dance studio from the beginning. She spent four years on the national award winning Saugus Dance Team, and has had the chance to work with many talented choreographers throughout her high school career. She has been very successful at all of her competitions while competing solos, group dances, small groups and trios. Aubrey has trained in many styles of dance such as contemporary, ballet, jazz, lyrical, Hip hop, tap etc. Aubrey wants to encourage dancers to build confidence by exploring new styles and finding themselves through their own movement and passion. L'amoré Dance Performing Arts Studio holds a very special place in Aubrey's heart and she wants to share and inspire others with her love of dance.

Michelle Mejia

Instructor of Dance

Michelle Mejia grew up in San Marino, CA and began her dance education at the age of three. She fell in love with dancing and was trained in ballet at the Collenette School of Ballet and Pasadena Dance Theater. Her dance education also includes classes in jazz, tap, modern, contemporary, lyrical, hula, hip hop, and salsa.

At the age of eleven, she was selected to be the youngest member of the of the Senior Jazz and Ballet Company at San Marino Dance Academy. She danced competitively in Hawaii, Chicago, NYC, Denver, and Florida under Majalet Collette Sibal and Kimberly Brown Rabins.

A few of her professional experiences include dancing in music videos with hip hop artists T.I., Travis Mills, Machine Gun Kelly, and the rock band, The Shinedown. She was also a member of the 2015 L.A. KISS Girls, who danced for the Arena Football League, L.A. KISS Football, owned by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons from the legendary rock band KISS.

She studied dance education and kinesiology at Pasadena City College and teach classes at the Athletic Garage Dance Center and San Marino Dance Academy.
In the summer of 2016, she performed in Munich, Innsbruck, Saltzburg, and Venice for the YoungTanzsommer Solaris European Dance Tour.

Currently, she is the dance coordinator and choreographer for the dance group, The Divinities, at the Foundation Room at the new House of Blues Anaheim in Anaheim, California.